Blended studying: Kerala for retaining autonomy of universities, flexibility in course choices
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Autonomy of universities and flexibility in selection of programs must be retained in the blended studying mode of instructing and studying, identified the Kerala State Higher Education Council in its suggestions on blended studying submitted to the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The council had organised a gathering on June 3 to gather suggestions from numerous stakeholders on the draft be aware on blended studying printed by the fee.
“On the whole, there is a general consensus about the background statement about the need for flexibility and student centricity in higher education. However, individual institutions require freedom to adapt them to suit their special academic structure, composition, and instructional practices, while retaining the core provisions of the draft for which we need to identify areas where flexibility is permissible,” the council mentioned in its suggestions.
Digital divide
The report acknowledged that it will be tough for Kerala to present a right away assure to the draft suggestion that known as for guaranteeing 24×7 connectivity of at the least a minimal 1 Gbps and an up-to-date edu-tech infrastructure with open entry to all of the academics and college students.
“However, the State can achieve this in the near future and address the limitations of digital divide. There is the requirement of redesigning the curricula in tune with technology, which amounts to total revamping. It is not possible for all the higher educational institutions to satisfy this requirement immediately. However, it is feasible for all university-level departments and selected colleges to satisfy the requirement,” it mentioned.
Classroom instructing
The council identified that the reforms will result in the alternative of a big quantity of classroom instructing by numerous different on-line actions. “Classes will be mostly conducted online. Face-to-face classroom teaching will become activities under the online driver and flipped classroom models. In effect, the real offline teaching will mostly be confined to lab work. The workload norms and career prospects of teachers will have to be reworked, taking the teaching community into confidence through adequate consultation with representatives of teachers’ organisations, both at the Central and State levels,” it mentioned.
Funding
The report mentioned that public funding is required for augmenting the infrastructural amenities related to the event of on-line mode of teaching-learning. Otherwise, it would irritate the present digital divide and deprive the poor college students, particularly the marginalised sections from the mainstream of larger training.
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